As part of BBC Radio 3's Music in the Great War programming, Donald MacLeod explores Edward Elgar's experience and feelings towards the conflict, and the role of his music in the British war effort.

The series will look at the drawn out composition of The Spirit of England as well as focusing on how Elgar's music boosted morale and raised funds in charity concerts.

The final episode explores his post-war life, including his embarking on his composition of the famous Cello Concerto.

Elgar wrote the Cello Concerto in his Sussex cottage where he had previously heard sounds of artillery. It is considered to be Elgar's own reflection on the war.

BBC Radio 3, 14:00 | Music in the Great War: Britain at War – Outbreak

Penny Gore explores the music of British composers who lived during World War One. The afternoon will feature music by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and two of his pupils from the Royal College of Music, Herbert Howells and Sir Arthur Bliss.

The programme includes Howells’s First Piano Concerto performed by Howard Shelley. Celebrated for its colourful orchestration and virtuosic solo part, the piece premiered the year that World War One began.

Strauss’s Don Juan will also be on the programme. And Leonard Elschenbroich will perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor.

Wednesday 25 June

BBC Radio 3, 14:00 | Music in the Great War: Germany at War

Penny Gore hosts an afternoon of music written by German composers during World War One.

On the bill are performances of works by Reger and Eisler by the BBC Singers.

Sean Rafferty presents In Tune live from Dunham Massey, a Georgian house that was transformed into the Stamford Military Hospital during World War One. As part of the war commemorations the National Trust has recreated a wartime hospital ward in the building.

Rafferty and his guests will reflect on what the hospital was like during the war through music and discussion. They will also talk about the impact of music as a morale-booster during the war. Pianist David Owen Norris will perform a selection of music from the time.

Saturday 28 June

BBC Radio 3, 17:00 | Live in Concert: Vienna Philharmonic in Sarajevo

As part of BBC Radio 3’s fortnight of programmes commemorating the World War One centenary, a historic concert will be broadcast from Sarajevo, where Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was assignated 100 years ago, one of the events that triggered the First World War.

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